Eur. Phys. J. A (2019) 55: 91
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2019-12768-4

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Measurement of thermal neutron capture cross section of ⁷¹Ga with dual monitor foils and covariance analysis

¹ Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, 576104, Manipal, India
² Nuclear Data Section, Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency, A-1400, Wien, Austria
³ Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, RIKEN, 351-0198, Wako, Saitama, Japan
⁴ Research Group for Radiation Transport Analysis, Environment and Radiation Sciences Division, Nuclear Science and Engineering Centre, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 319-1195, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki, Japan

^* e-mail: priyadapv@gmail.com

Received: 23 February 2019
Accepted: 8 May 2019
Published online: 17 June 2019

Abstract

The thermal neutron cross section of ⁷¹Ga(n,)⁷²Ga reaction was measured with respect to the ¹⁹⁷Au(n,)¹⁹⁸Au and ⁵⁵Mn(n,)⁵⁶Mn monitor reactions using neutrons from an Am-Be source placed inside a concrete bunker. A covariance analysis was performed to obtain the off-diagonal weighted mean of the results determined with the two monitor reactions. The thermal neutron cross section obtained in the present study is b. The present result is lower than the data measured under neutron fields having broad neutron spectra in general, but more consistent with the thermal neutron cross sections extrapolated from the cross sections measured under monoenergetic neutron fields according to the -law. The current status of the ⁷¹Ga(n,)⁷²Ga reaction cross section in the nuclear databases is briefly reviewed in the relation with the Maxwellian spectrum averaged cross section for s -process calculation.